Sometimes it’s a startup business, and not political power, that grows out of the barrel of a gun. At least, that’s the story behind Trocafone, a Brazilian startup that just raised $7 million for its services buying, refurbishing, and re-selling smartphones across Latin America. The company’s journey began with an armed robbery in Argentina. Read More

Twenty years ago only one out of 10 people in Mexico had a telephone of any kind. Today, more than 100 million people have cell phones and, more amazingly, more than 70 percent of those are smartphones. To keep up the torrid growth, scrappy competitors are offering smartphones for every budget and plans that let users choose right from their handsets which services they want and how much they… Read More

Many companies have transformed and realigned their focus with great success. Avon transitioned from peddling books door-to-door to marketing beauty products. Wrigley started as a soap and baking soda company. IBM originally sold massive mainframe computers and calculators. Now, telecom companies are making similar pivots into a lucrative industry. The battle du jour is about customer data… Read More

At long last, Apple is adding a way for people to pay for purchases on iTunes beyond credit or debit cards — a move that points to the company sharpening its focus on marketing the iPhone to a wider set of users. Apple — working first with O2/Telefonica in Germany — will now let people pay for items using carrier billing in iTunes.
This means users can now pay for… Read More

Telefonica, the Spanish carrier with operations in 24 countries and 323 million customers, is making its latest bid to expand its business beyond basic mobile and telephone services, by moving into ad tech. Read More

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Those with a sharp eye who visited the Geneva motor show or who own a Model S in Europe may have already noticed a connection between Telefonica and Tesla by way of the “car connected by Telefonica” signs on the sides of cars, or through the in-car navigation system that played Spanish ads. Now the two are making it official: Telefonica says that it will be providing the… Read More

Telefónica’s global network of 14 Wayra Academies, which each incubate a yearly crop of tech startups in the hopes of spotting the next big thing so their carrier overlord doesn’t have to, has gained a new addition to that tally — via a partnership with Chinese incubator Virtue Inno Valley (VIV). Read More

The Line messaging app that spent last year pushing beyond its home market of Japan has inked a deal aiming to bolster its presence in markets in Latin America. Today it’s announcing a partnership with telecoms giant Telefónica focused on building traction via exclusivity on the lower cost Firefox OS (FFOS) platform.
The partnership gives Telefónica subscribers exclusive access to… Read More

Chalk up another casualty in the consolidation of Internet voice services. Nearly four years to the day after getting acquired by Telefonica for $207 million, VoIP provider Jajah has announced that it is shutting down, effective January 31, 2014. Registered users of Jajah.com (its web-based service that provides a price-reducing VoIP bridge between two landline or mobile numbers) and Jajah… Read More

In the allegro-paced race between music streaming providers to see who will be the first to achieve profitable scale, today Rhapsody got a significant leg up, courtesy of Telefonica. The Spanish-based mobile carrier, which has some 316 million customers globally, is making a strategic investment in Rhapsody, which will include a deal to bundle and resell Rhapsody’s Napster music service… Read More

Pinterest is ramping up its business development with new ad units, and also with some key partnerships with third parties. Today the company is announcing a deal with Telefonica, the mobile carrier giant with some 316 million customers, to preload a widget on new handsets that it sells in Latin America and Europe, starting first with its O2 UK subsidiary. Read More

Telefónica’s accelerator network Wayra is sharing some data exclusively with TechCrunch on how it’s fared so far in its young existence, including key metrics such as how much money it’s invested in the startups put through its programme, follow-on funding raised, how many companies have entered the dead-pool, and number of exits. Yes, folks, we bring you more startup… Read More

Microsoft continues to throw money down the Windows Phone well, perhaps buoyed by signs its ongoing marketing and platform support efforts are shifting the needle a few fractions. Today more evidence — presumably — of Ballmer’s money-throwing commitment to make its smartphone OS stick: carrier Telefonica has announced it will be collaborating with Microsoft to “promote… Read More

Telefonica is today announcing a deal with Samsung that will see it make an even bigger move into the area of carrier billing. Samsung will integrate the carrier’s billing backend directly into its own mobile services, meaning that the Telefonica customers (it has 316 million worldwide) who use the Samsung Hub and Samsung Apps portals on Samsung smartphones will be able to buy apps… Read More

Expect Labs has already received funding from the likes of Google Ventures and Greylock Partners, but the San Francisco-based startup (and TechCrunch Disrupt alum) announced this morning that Intel Capital, Samsung Ventures, and Telefonica Digital have made their own strategic investments in the company. Read More

Firefox OS, the new, HTML5-friendly mobile OS from Mozilla, is today taking a big step forward in its strategy to become a viable third player in the smartphone landscape currently dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Mozilla is announcing that 18 carriers have now committed to its Open Web HTML5 device push; the launch of the Firefox Marketplace app store to… Read More